Tube safety staff job cuts anger

Plans to cut back safety staff on London Underground have been attacked

A fresh row over job losses on London Underground flared up when union leaders complained that safety staff were being cut back.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said it "beggared belief" that jobs in LU's Safety Directorate were being cut by 50% under plans for hundreds of job losses which have sparked a series of strikes.

The union said it had been told that 65 jobs out of a total of 127 at LU's headquarters were being axed.

General secretary Gerry Doherty said: "It beggars belief that at a time of heightened security in the capital the Mayor is talking about cutting back on safety staff on a system used by three million people every day. This news comes during the inquest into the July bombings five years ago in which the heroism of LU staff has been widely recognised and praised.

"This is the thanks they get from a Mayor who is more interested in scoring cheap political points than entering into serious negotiations with the trade unions on maintaining and improving the Tube in the run up to the Olympics in 2012."

Members of the TSSA and the Rail Maritime and Transport union have staged three 24-hour strikes in recent weeks over plans to cut 800 ticket office jobs, with another walkout planned for the end of the month.

A Transport for London spokesman said: "As part of the review announced last month to reduce back office jobs at London Underground by around 800, around 60 posts will be removed from the company's Health, Safety and Environment directorate.

"The posts represent less than a quarter of the directorate's total staff and are non-operational advisory roles, not in those teams which carry out maintenance and safety checks on the railway."

Meanwhile, Labour's Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone and Labour's London Assembly transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross have written to Mayor Boris Johnson listing a series of questions about the delays and disruption to Tube services in recent weeks.

The Mayor was asked to explain the "daily problems" being experienced by travellers and questioned about any actions he had taken to improve services.

New strike vote for rail staff

Workers at Merseyrail are to be balloted for strikes in a row over pay

Workers at a second rail company are to be balloted for strikes in another row over pay.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its members at Merseyrail, excluding guards and drivers, will be urged to support industrial action in the vote, which ends on November 30.

The union said lengthy pay negotiations with Merseyrail had ended with two "derisory" offers being rejected by RMT members.

General-secretary Bob Crow said: "It is crystal-clear to us from the failure of the negotiations that what drives Merseyrail is not a wish to reward the hard work and loyalty to the staff but an escalating desire for bigger profits to line the pockets of the shareholders.

"RMT is sending out a clear message today that this situation can no longer be tolerated. Without the hard work of our members, there would be no company profits and it's high time that Merseyrail recognised that.

"We are calling on our members for an overwhelming Yes vote for industrial action, and industrial action short of a strike that will force Merseyrail management to get back round the table and put forward a decent pay rise that properly rewards their staff."

The RMT is also balloting its members at Arriva Trains Wales for industrial action, while the train drivers' union Aslef has announced that its members at the Welsh firm will walk out on November 19, 26 and 27, with other dates for action to be announced later, also over pay.